An article from Kyero.com, looks at Britain’s love affair with Spain and some of the best places to invest your hard earned cash…

Spain, the UK’s favourite holiday location for years, has literally become a home away from home for the Brits. Since the mid 1990’s, Spain has been the number one choice with UK holidaymakers and its popularity keeps growing. In 2005, Spain saw a staggering 13,864,000 UK tourists.

Investing in Spain
They’re not just coming for holidays anymore. Every year, more UK families and young couples are choosing to leave the endless grey skies and set up home in sunny Spain. Spain is also still a key player in the buy-to-let and investment property markets, despite rising competition from emerging markets in Eastern Europe – the likes of Bulgaria, Romania and Croatia.

Being a mature market does have its advantages. Spain offers low interest rates and sustained long-term growth – something which these new emerging markets can’t guarantee. Spain also has an infinitely better climate than Eastern Europe, the Canary Islands in particular, which is a big factor when it comes to year round rental yields.

It’s debatable also, whether these emerging markets will eventually establish the same UK expat communities that exist more established markets like Spain and France.

Where in Spain?
According to the Kyero, Malaga, Granada and Alicante are the most popular regions in terms of Internet searches but Almeria and Valencia is where to look if you want a property at a price well below the national average with strong capital appreciation and rental potential. The Canary Islands, with year round sunshine, are probably the best buy-to-let location in the country.

Almeria
Located in southeastern Spain, this beautiful province, famous for its desert-like landscape, endless blue skies and intense light has been the setting for many spaghetti westerns. It’s also one of the best scuba-diving locations in Spain and just a short drive from the Sierra Nevada ski resorts.

It’s a land of contrasts with unspoilt coastal fishing villages and picturesque towns like Mojacar – one of eastern Spain’s best-kept secrets.

In recent years however, the region has become more popular. There are now numerous new hotel resorts and golf developments. Almeria’s airport is now served directly by a number of budget carriers, including Easyjet, Ryanair, Monarch and Flybe.



Although, development is increasing all the time, Almeria is still relatively untouched compared to neighbouring Malaga province. Property is cheaper now but will no doubt go up as development continues.

Valencia
Valencia on the eastern coast, directly across from Madrid also offers excellent value compared to the more popular tourist traps. Between 2005 and 2006, the region saw a steady rise in property values.

In Castellon (Northern Valencia) there was an increase of “35% from €167,000 in May 2005 to €225,000“.

The Costa Azahar is another area well worth looking at. This idyllic stretch of coastline boasts over 112 kilometres of unspoilt Mediterranean shores and a dazzling 320 days of sunshine a year. Properties here were 8% cheaper than the national average in 2006.

The capital (Valencia), Spain’s third largest city is vibrant, cosmopolitan and offers everything you’d expect from a major urban centre.

The 1992 Olympic games held in nearby Barcelona had a very positive impact on the city’s property market. The 2007 America’s Cup held in Valencia is likely to do the same.

Millions of euros have already been pumped into the infrastructure. There’s now a new high-speed rail link from Madrid and Valencia’s main airport has been extended. There are regular low cost flights from the UK.

Buy-to-let Hotspots – Gran Canaria
Gran Canaria, one of the last European paradise isles offers one of the most spectacular natural landscapes in Spain.

It’s a miniature continent with lush green forests, exotic wildlife and flowers, massive sand dunes, spectacular beaches, formidable snow-capped mountain peaks and huge volcanic craters.

The Canary Islands are the only genuine winter sun destination in Spain. Temperatures rarely drop below 18C or rise above 25C and it’s nearly always sunny. It’s perpetual springtime of these fortunate isles.

In Spain, a two-bedroom property can be rented out for approximately 100 euros per night during the peak seasons of July and August. On Gran Canaria, because of the climate, it’s peak season from January to January – all year long. Buy-to-let investors can make substantial earnings. Click the following link for more information on Gran Canaria Real Estate.

Canaryproperty.com is one of the most comprehensive of these, covering; Tenerife, Lanzarote, La Gomera, Fuerteventura, El Hierro and La Palma

As well as displaying properties from some of the most well established estate agents in the Canary Islands, the site also provides local information and property articles.

Featured articleWhy Invest in Maspalomas, Gran CanariaLocated on the idyllic island of Gran Canaria, Maspalomas is undoubtedly one the most popular and well known reorts in the Canary Islands.As soon as properties become availabe here, they’re sold almost instantly to both homebuyers and investors. This area has fantastic potential both as a place to live and a place to invest. With year round sunshine, you can rent out your property here at tourist prices all year long.Gran Canaria is only the third largest of the Canary Islands but has the largest population. It’s known as the “Miniature Continent” because of it’s amazingly diverse landscape and climate. It has a warm climate, excellent beaches, spectacular landscape and a well developed infrastructure.

The resorts along the southern coast of Gran Canaria are generally the busiest. These include San Agustin, Playa del Ingles, Puerto Rico and Maspalomas.

Maspalomas is a sun and sea lover’s paradise. It’s famous for its massive golden sandy beach and huge sand dunes.

It’s a popular tourist area with all the facilities you’d expect from a modern resort. It’s got plenty of restaurants, bars, taverns, shopping centres, souvenirs and businesses etc.

Maspalomas is located beside one of the wildest places for nightlife on the island – Playa des Ingles. In Maspalomas however, the nightlife is lively and fun but always sophisticated.

One of the area’s most outstanding attractions has to be the Dunes Nature Reserve (a protected natural heritage site). Apart from the spectacular sand dunes there’s also a huge lagoon here along with marshlands and a diverse range of local inhabitants – everything from sand lizards to rabbits.

Maspalomas beach (one of the best on the island) is a ten kilometre stretch of fine golden sand that has been awarded “Blue Flag” status by the European Union. The Blue Flag award is given to any beach that displays a certain standard in terms of water quality, general cleanliness of the beach and range of facilities available.

The beach is cleaned every day and has lifegaurds on patrol. As well the many private beach clubs, Maspalomas also has a wide range of water sports facilities along with medical centres, bars, restaurants, and sun beds and parasols for hire.

It’s also home to one of the most important golf courses on Gran Canaria – Maspalomas golf course.

Maspalomas is the oldest tourist town in the south coast of the island. With a perfect year-round climate, cheap prices (compared to UK), growing expat community and good quality infrastructure, more and more people are choosing to make Maspalomas their second home. The quality of life here is excellent.

If you’re planning on investing or making a permanent move here, rest assured you’ll still find plenty of new developments and off-plan opportunities in this area.

Casa Quest has the largest and most varied selection of property for sale in Tenerife, Lanzarote, Fuerteventura and Gran Canaria). The site is aimed at buyers, sellers and investors. It provides a wealth of information about the Spanish property market and the buying or selling process.

Sale options
When selling your property in the Canary Islands you can either go through an agent or sell it privately yourself.

Selling through an Estate Agent
An agent will normally charge you between 3% and 10% of the agreed return price for selling your property.

Depending on the value of the property, this can be a significant amount of money. For example, an apartment for sale at an asking price of 150,000 euros, would be subject to an Agents fee of 7,500 euros at 5% commission.

For this fee, most agents will advertise your property in press & magazine adverts as well as on their website.

Real estate agents in Spain generally take a very hands- on approach to the sale of your property. They’ll look after everything for you, from initial property search and market advice to arranging legal proceedings and conveyancing.

Selling privately
The obvious advantage with selling privately is that you don’t have to pay the agents any commission.

That said, you’ll have to do all your own advertising – you need to let potential buyers, who are looking for a property like yours, know that it’s available. Communicating back and forth with numerous would-be buyers can be quite time consuming. You’ll probably need to seek legal advice too (to be on the safe).

Selling your property through Casa Quest
Casa Quest offers a unique advertising opportunity. Instead of just putting your property on one agent’s website, it allows you to advertise to a wide audience across a network of establish and reputable web sites.

It’s one of the best ways to reach people looking for property for sale in the Canary Islands. Here are just some of the properties you’ll find on Casa Quest…

Tenerife

1 Bed Apartment in Golf del Sur
Good size apartment on popular complex, excellent for rentals all year round. Fully furnished, terrace, communal pool.
Price: €94.000 EUR
£ 62.700 GBP

Fuerteventura

1 Bed Apartment in Corralejo
Beautiful spacious 1 and 2 Bed apts. Close to the beach, sand dunes and harbour. Up to 100% mortgage available and guaranteed rental scheme.
Price: €120.000 EUR

Gran Canaria

4 Bed Villa in Maspalomas
Beautiful four-bedroom villa in a very quiet area of Maspalomas. Has the option of two separate large apartments – ideal for guests or as a large family home.
Price: €580.000 EUR

How it all began
Casa Quest is the brainchild of Dr Paul Johnson, a retired British medical practitioner. After living and working in Tenerife for ten years he saw the difficulties that can come with buying or selling a property in the Canary Islands.

With the help of Sorted Sites – leading local web development agency, Casa Quest was created. This unique and very complex site took several months to create. It’s now up and running since 2003.